ROUNDABOUT, YES – In a show of hands taken by Town Engineer Bob Burgmann there was near unanimous support for some type of roundabout to solve the traffic and safety problems at the intersection of Routes 6 and 149, but those gathered at the Feb. 27 coffee hour hosted by the West Barnstable Civic Association differed on just what it should look like.

In November, the people of West Barnstable spoke, and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation listened.

At the West Barnstable Civic Association’s coffee hour Feb. 27, Barnstable Town Engineer Bob Burgmann ran through three options for improving the intersection of route 149 and 6, two of which were roundabouts.

MassDOT originally proposed two sets of lights, one for each set of ramps. Those were met with near unanimous opposition during a hearing on the 25-percent plans in November. At that session, the concept of a roundabout was introduced and MassDOT responded with two possible scenarios.

Nearly everyone among those gathered at the West Barnstable Community Building Saturday morning expressed support for the roundabouts.

Gone from the earlier DOT proposal are lights for the westbound ramps, which intersect Route 149 near West Parish. Burgmann said that the town’s position is that those are not necessary, based in part on the engineering needs, but also on the community’s sentiment.

Of the options now on the table, the first is a traditional roundabout that incorporates the four-way intersection of Route 149, Exit 5 eastbound ramps and Service Road.

The second option is an elongated roundabout extended south to incorporate the east side of Service Road as it enters Route 149.

While there was near unanimity for a roundabout option over lights, the 65 or so gathered Saturday began to differ on the degree of the work to be done.

Burgmann, sensing that there was still work to be done on the design, asked for a show of hands on general concepts, rather than the specifics as presented. A majority thought a solution that incorporated both legs of Service Road made sense, but others liked the tighter circle.

In his presentation, Burgmann went through the benefits and drawbacks of the options detail.

Regarding lights, which no one confessed to liking, he said that it becomes a complicated set of motions and signals to accommodate all of the turns represented in the primary intersection with the off-ramps.

Cost becomes an advantage for either roundabout, as they would be cheaper to build and have no operational costs once completed.

The smaller circle slows traffic in all directions and requires those traveling the circle to maintain the same speed. That’s not the case with the larger roundabout, which includes straight-aways where speed can be gained, Burgmann said.

He likened it to the larger airport rotary in Hyannis, which allows vehicles to pick up speed and close what appear to be gaps in traffic.

“None of them are 100 percent solutions to the problem,” Burgmann said.

Burgmann explained that an early concept to cut off Service Road on the east side of Route 149 and reactivate the discontinued and overgrown Sandy Street posed environmental issues. The guidance from the state was to redevelop the intersection within the existing roadways.

While the town is assisting in the collection of information and comments for the project, it is fully a MassDOT project from design to funding.

Comments on the proposals will be taken over the next couple of weeks and then redrafted. Burgmann said that the goal of MassDOT is to have the project advertised this fall, which maintains the funding source. Construction could be expected about a year from now.